[Update] Court Approves Sony Settlement In 2011 PSN Data Breach Case

Update: Sony has responded to our request for comment on the settlement for the 2011 PSN hacking and data breach class actions suit.

"A proposed settlement has been reached in the class action lawsuits arising from the April 2011 criminal cyber-attacks on the PlayStation Network, Qriocity, and Sony Online Entertainment services," a representative told Game Informer via email. "Information regarding the proposed settlement, which is subject to final approval by the Court, is available in the settlement agreement and other documents filed with the Court. While we continue to deny the allegations in the class action lawsuits, most of which had been previously dismissed by the trial court, we decided to move forward with a settlement to avoid the costs associated with lengthy litigation. To date, the Sony entities have received no confirmed reports of identity theft linked to the attacks, and there is no evidence that anyone’s credit card information was accessed. We are glad that the parties are working toward a resolution of this matter and that our gamers will continue to enjoy our entertainment services."

As we mentioned last night, a judge has given preliminary approval to the settlement, which would carve out approximately $15 million in compensation to affected users, including free games, unused fund reimbursements, and awards if identity theft can be proved. Another $2.75 million will be paid in attorney fees per the terms.

Original Story:

The US District Court for the Southern District of California has preliminarily approved a settlement over the 2011 PlayStation Network data breach, which took the service down for weeks. The cash value of the settlement could be as much as $17.75 million.

The settlement includes an offer of a PS3 or PSP game, PS3 themes, or three months of PlayStation Plus membership. Sony’s settlement offer includes a number of tiers depending on whether users took advantage of the “Welcome Back” game offer that was made available in 2011.

Users that did take advantage can choose one of these groups. Those that did not can choose two. Eight PlayStation 3 games, including Dead Nation, Infamous, LittleBigPlanet, Super Stardust HD, and Rain will be offered. Six PlayStation Portable titles, including LittleBigPlanet, ModNation Racers, Patapon 3, and Killzone Liberation are included. The remaining, yet to be named titles, will be at least six months old from the time the formal settlement notification is posted.

There are caps on the different groups. Once $6 million of claims in the non-Welcome Back group and $4 million in the Welcome Back group are reached, claimants will be awarded a one month PlayStation Plus membership.

Additionally, those Sony Online Entertainment users that were affected can get $4.50 in Station Cash. The cap on this category is $4 million, and if claims exceed that amount, all users will have deposits reduced proportionally to accommodate the group.

The settlement also has a provision for identity theft protection reimbursements of up to $1 million for the group. If you can evidence that your identity was compromised due to the breach, you can submit a claim for up to $2,500.

There are also stipulations for those that had unused wallet currency and did not use it because of the intrusion (due to account lapse or deactivation). Additionally, there are mechanisms to reimburse Qriocity music service users that were paying at the time.

Attorney fees are covered in the settlement, and the many firms involved will be paid $2.75 million. We’ve reached out to Sony for comment and will update should we receive a response.

Our TakeThe court order means that in the coming months, you should be receiving something in the mail that will allow you to claim your benefits under the settlement. You'll want to move quickly so as to get your filing in before the groups reach the cap.This is an interesting turn of events, ending the tale of one of the most memorable cautionary tales in recent video game history.

I was under the impression that no one's identity was actually breached. I am also under the impression that these are people trying to capitalize on something for personal gain. Such as patent trolling.

What does Sony owe anyone other than people who may have had their identity stolen which I thought hadn't happened? We had to go without our FREE service for a few weeks, why should they owe anyone anything?

I find it humorous that PS3 themes would be offered, as only an idiot would pick that over a free game or free PS+. But still, I'm waiting for the other games to be announced. I beat or am not interested in those listed and have no need for PS+.

I am good. I didn't really suffer anything in the outtage and Sony's paid me back more than I was owed (if any). PSN+ was and is a very valuable service. I just hope rest of the money sucks go easy cause damn thats a lot of loss piled on to their original blunders...

Sony more than compensated me for this incident. They also took a lot of crap for something that could happen to any company out there. In my opinion Sony did all they needed to do offering fraud protection.

I wonder how different in tone the comments would be if the word "Sony" was replaced with "Microsoft"...
Giving out a few old games should not be considered good enough for a company which was negligent in protecting their customers data. This is not a case of shrewd hackers undermining a system with adequate safeguards - Sony left their servers wide open for anyone to pull data from. My home server had better protection than this multibillion dollar company bothered with to protect my data.
It's ironic how many of the same people who say they'll never buy a MSFT product because of paranoia that Kinect would spy on them are so forgiving of another company which practically invited malicious criminals to steal their personal data.

I imagine even if this case succeeds, Sony won't pay out nearly that much. I don't remember hearing many, if any, real cases of people having their identity stolen, or credit card info used.
I'm perfectly happy with how Sony handled it before. I really don't think they need to compensate anyone, except perhaps those who can prove beyond a doubt that they were directly affected by this. I imagine the free games didn't do much to ease the pain of someone (if anyone) that got their CC info, or identity, stolen.
On one negative note, it sure looks like the game lineup is going to be pretty similar, and it was only mediocre before. Now those games have another 3+ years on them...